Monarda punctata
A perennial herb that plays both ways -- a native bench buffer at home and a modest introduced-range attacker in Europe -- with an edible leaf that pays coins.
Spotted beebalm is a perennial-herb card native to eastern and western North America and invasive in Europe, so it is one of the few plants in this batch that plays both roles: a native buffer at home and an attacker where it is introduced. Its category places it in the Competitor succession group (see categories).
Numbers are read at the snapshot level 40, where every slot is unlocked.
The starter, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun for 30 native / 30 invasive: Creeps underground into the foe's back row. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Taproot Canal, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun for 27 native / 27 invasive: Drives down and draws the foe dry. No move carries the initiative rider. See moves.
This card keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. At Lv 10 it gains basal-rosette, a flat +3 DEF from the ground-hugging rosette; at Lv 68 Resprout stacks on. Resprout is a sustain trait: it saves the plant from one lethal hit at about a quarter HP, but it triggers only around 60% of the time and does not arrive until Lv 68, so for most of a card's life the +3 DEF of basal-rosette is all it has.
It holds no Thorns, Toxin or Unpalatable contact trait, so striking it costs an attacker no recoil. It is a soft herb, so a Calcium/Magnesium amendment (flat DEF) helps most on defense. As an edible with an edible leaf, a Nitrogen fertilizer is the economy pick (leaf pairs with N). Its growth habit is not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole eligible. See field gear.
At 40 the native reads 103 HP and 25 ATK; the invasive trades the HP cushion for a higher 25 ATK on 89 HP -- a small step up, since its introduced range is only Europe. Both sit on a soft 1 DEF, and retreat costs 11 Sun. Opening initiative 38 is a touch quicker than its sustained SPD 34, so it is a quick starter that eases off slightly as a cruiser. As a native it carries a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack (10 + level-1) and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. See stats.
Fully grown, native HP climbs toward 190 (invasive 165) while DEF stays soft at 2 -- a big-HP, thin-armor herb. Native ATK reaches 45 and invasive 45, so the attacker's edge widens with age. Retreat rises to 21 Sun and the inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its 1% floor, so a mature beebalm no longer opens fast.
As a perennial-herb it is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderal (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), resisted to ×0.667 by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), neutral into other Competitors and the Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
At home it is a native buffer -- bench it to stack an HP overshield and use its draining attacks to grind a tank down. In Europe it becomes a light attacker, but the ATK gap over its native self is small and the Faustian bench cost eats into your own back row, so it is a supporting racer rather than a finisher. Because its edible part (leaf) is resolved, feeding it Nitrogen pays the ×1.25 coin bonus; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. On the total-power gallery it leans on tempo early and shifts toward bulk and attack from about Lv 24 as a native -- which edge dominates, not a reason to avoid leveling.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plant’s tempo (SPD + INI, the turn-order edge) fades as it grows, while its power (HP + ATK + DEF, net of the rising Sun cost to retreat) climbs. The crossover is the level where power overtakes tempo: below it the plant is a fast skirmisher, above it a heavyweight. Shown for each stance this plant can actually hold — native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither — with the card at its crossover and fully grown at Lv 100.